Shadow hunter Chapter 14

[Maka]

The walk away from Death city was a little awkward. Four teenagers leaving the city against orders, with one of the highest-ranking members of society with them. The irony was not lost on me. Black Star was being uncharacteristically quiet, in fact so was everybody else. Not being able to take any more silence, I turn to Black Star as we walk. "So I saw Excalibur when he came to the city with Hiro but you and Kid actually hung around with him right? What was he like?"

Black Star flinched a little at Excalibur's mention, "He was weird. He was demanding and rude and not at all awesome like me. But, there was something off about him. It was like underneath all his crazy, he felt, strong."

Kid spoke up from the back of the group, "It's true. When I was with him I felt it too. It felt like there was like an ocean of power beneath the surface, and when we fought him. It was like nothing else. We were completely over powered by him and Hiro, who we out class in every way, no offense to Hiro of course. When Hiro held Excalibur he moved faster than anything else, he could fly, and his strength was unparalleled. The fact that he beat Star, Kilik and I shows his strength."

"Yah but if we were really trying we coulda blasted him BAM!" Patty yells out behind Kid.

Liz looks at Patty as if she grew a second head, "Are you crazy Patty, you felt the soul energy coming offa that thing if he had decided to hit us for real we would have went bam!"

"Nah sis when next time we see him imma Tear him apart!" Patty yells while holding up one arm.

While all the rest of my friends are laughing and talking about Excalibur I fall quite and think to my self, with every new account of the weapons power I get a little more nervous of our upcoming confrontation. "Well we don't have to beat Excalibur right? If he's as stubborn as you say I doubt he'll freely follow Tsubaki and if he's a strong as you say I don't think that she can kill him."

My father walking next to me seems to notice my distress, "That's right, in a worst case scenario all we have to do is defend Excalibur from Tsubaki, however it's way more likely that Excalibur will be able to defend itself. While Tsubaki did show increased strength at the last battle she only beat you because you were unprepared. This time we know exactly what we are up against."

[Soul]

I closed my eyes tightly trying to block out the suns rays and get a few more minutes of sleep. I turn and bury my face into my nice warm pillow. I feel myself getting closer to sleep as I breath in and out, the rhythmic breathing of my pillow lulling me back to-,what? Wait a second. I slowly open my eyes and see Tsubaki's smiling face above mine. Oh shit. I quickly sit up and wildly scoot backwards muttering apologies and hoping she wont hit me to hard. I cross my arms over my head and close my eyes preparing for the worst. I feel a hand on my arm and grit my teeth in preparation. "How did you sleep?"

Maybe she hit me so hard I'm suffering hallucinations but it almost sounded like she wasn't mad. I risk a glance and see Tsubaki smiling sweetly at me while resting a hand on my arm. "Um- well, I guess." Is she really not mad? " Your not mad at me for moving onto your bed? I don't have to worry about a Tsubaki chop? "

She shook her head, "Of course not. I even said it was okay; you're the one who insisted on a spare bed, I'm nothing like Maka. I'm glad you decided to sleep with me." Her smile set me on edge a little, and her innuendo was hard to miss, but I sighed and lowered my arms in relief thinking of the beating Maka would have given me. "We should probably get ready to go. I don't know exactly where were going but I get the feeling we'll need to cover a lot of ground." I nod and get out of the bed looking for the bag with my clothes. When I find them and turn around I see Tsubaki get out of the bed wearing only what she went to sleep in. My eyes may have lingered longer than I intended. She saw me and giggled, "Like what you see?" I turned back so fast I heard my neck snap running into the bathroom to get changed.

After we pack all of our things me and Soul set out on the road to our destination. About two hours into the walk I see shadows sifting out of the corner of my eye. An uneasy feeling settles in my gut. Someone is following us. Soul looks at me with concern. "Are you alright? You look a little sick."

I hesitate for a second before saying, "Actually I don't feel too good, I'm going to go to the bathroom, ill be right back." I walk off into the forest towards the presence.

Once out of earshot from Soul. "Come on out. I know your there." No one responds but I hear a rustling of leaves to my right. Before I raise my arm to attack I see a familiar face. "Mitch?" Standing before me is the bartender from the Kishin coliseum. His face is human looking he has a smooth baldhead with a long scruffy beard down to his chest. From the waist up he appears to be an old, slightly dirty, slightly overweight male; below that he has eight long spider-like legs, all pitch black with dark hairs sticking out of them. Despite being a friend I still keep my guard up. I doubt he came all this way just to chat. "What are you doing here? How did you even find me?"

He smiles at me, "You don't seem all that happy to see me; something on your mind? You want some grape juice?" I glare at him and start gathering shadows around me. "Heh, I'm sorry, it's just been so long. Now lets see why am I here? To find you of course. Your reputation from the arena has spread far. There are many Kishin who respect you. And I must say earning the respect of my kind is something not easily done."

I allow the shadows around me to return to their original positions but keep my glare leveled at him. "That still doesn't answer why you're here. Or how you found me."

"Ah, right my bad. As an old man I tend to ramble. The reason I'm here is because as I said before many of us respect you and many are willing to follow you, even more than followed Asura. We blindly followed his madness but we want a true leader, a monarch to rule us. You lived amongst us, fought in our arena and now I'm here to ask you to lead us."

I almost laugh. Lead them? The Kishin? "You expect me to lead a bunch of Kishin? By definition you're all insane. How the hell would I even lead an army of insane monsters?"

He chuckles a bit. "If you think we are the monsters you should see the way you fought in that arena. As for how; well madness comes in all different forms. There are some who have lost all grip on their sanity they can't be controlled. However there are others like me. Did you see any of us in the arena attack someone for no reason? Probably, but not all of us. If we did there was no way the establishment could even exist. We would have never been able to build it. Yet we did. There is a lot you don't know about our kind, and a lot you don't need to. You once told me that the reaper was your enemy. All you need to know is that we hate the reaper, and we follow those with power. If you still want to wage war against the Shinigami we will be your army. All you have to do is lead us."

Silence. I think over the impossible proposal. Controlling an army. With that I could take down the DWMA, I could crush death. If I destroy death city, destroy Maka. Then all Soul will have is me, he would never leave me. He would have nothing to go back to. I would be all he has, his everything. "I'll do it." I see Mitch smile.

"So Kishin queen, what is your first order?"

Now it's my turn to smile, "There is a blond scythe meister who is no doubt coming after me, Maka Albarn. Kill her."

"Very well my queen." He does a little bow and reaches into his pocket and hands me a pitch-black whistle with carvings and markings on the side. "If you blow this, Kishin loyal to you will come to your aid."

He turns to leave, but before I go I ask something that's been bothering me. "You never did tell me how you found me."

He turns towards me and lets out a laugh, revealing several rows of razor sharp teeth, "How did you feel me coming when your partner didn't? We Monsters can sense our own." And with that he vanished.

[Stein]

After retrieving the Stone, Marie and I quickly make our way back to Shibsen to report in to lord death. I have a small sense of pride as I walk under the guillotine walkways towards lord death. I'm not a prideful person however I am pleased that I managed to return with my task completed only a few days after it was assigned. Death however didn't seem so happy.

Before I could even say anything I heard Shinigami call out to me, "Stein. Did you retrieve the stone?" I nodded pulling out the small red crystal Marie and I had received. "And you believe that you could use this to subdue Ms. Natatsukasa?" I nodded again, every time I thought about it my hypothesis became more certain in my mind. While I'm only ninety nine percent sure I wasn't going to let that one percent keep me from saying yes. "Good, because we have a problem."

Just as quickly as we had entered the city Marie and I were off again. Marie complained about our quick departure on the helicopter seat next to mine. "How come we have to leave already? I never even got to take my shoes off."

I ignored her whining as I thought of what lord death had told me. Could Spirit really have betrayed him? I know he has always had an obsession with his family, something I could never understand, but his loyalty to Shinigami had always been absolute. The only possible explanation would be that Maka asked him to help her, but if it cam to that I'm sure that he would have stood strong and denied her as well as reported it to Shinigami. Right? And Maka is a good girl she would never purposefully manipulate her fathers devotion to her for her personal gain. Would she? The more I pondered the questions the more worried I became, because if Maka's obsession with Soul was so strong that she would be willing to use her own father then she is clearly more disturbed than she let on. This level of obsession is a very clear sign of; "Madness."

Steins voice shocked the still complaining Marie. "What did you say?"

Stein continued to mull his thought over for a second before replying. "The level of obsession that Maka has with Soul is not love, and is far beyond friends caring for one another, this obsession that she has is a sign of madness."

Marie frowned thinking for a second before smiling. "Aren't you forgetting about her anti-madness wavelength? How could she possibly be affected by madness while she has that? Besides if she was wouldn't someone have noticed by now?"

Stein didn't hesitate before answering, "I did." Stein paused before elaborating. "Weeks ago before this all started when Shinigami decided it would be a good idea for Tsubaki and Soul to partner together I felt it. When he made the announcement I felt a wave of possessive madness. It was subtle but still there. I assumed it came from Soul because he was distraught at his new meister change so I only focused on him. However if it was Maka, then that madness has been festering and growing since then only been growing and festering. Her anti madness wavelength may protect her from foreign madness. But to save her from her own madness she's always had Soul."

[Maka]

"Are we there yet Kid?"

For what be the umpteenth time Kid was forced to answer. "No Patty."

This had been going on for about four hours, and needless to say we were all annoyed and the group morale was at an all time low. "Although it shouldn't be much farther."

We all perk up hearing this a spring in our step as we speed to our destination. When suddenly I hear it and stop. The others look at me before they hear it as well. At first I think it's a waterfall. "What is that rushing water?"

Kid pulls out Beelzebub and flies into the air. He yells down to us. "It looks like some kind of cloud heading our way. It's black like a storm we shoul-"

All of a sudden Kid stopped, I was about to ask what he saw but then it slowly came into view. First I saw the teeth, then the wings, then the massive glowing eyes. "Kishin!" Before I even turn around everybody is in battle positions years of combat experience showing itself. There was one massive birdlike kishin Flying towards us with many smaller flying kishin flying around it, all of them headed directly for us. "Should we run?"

Kid lands next to me Liz and Patty already in hand. "No use they've already seen us. These kishin are acting irregularly. They normally don't travel in large groups and they are all heading directly towards us. Our only option is to fight."

Black star steps in front of me. "HA! That's the way I like it! A god like me never runs away! Like a bunch of lousy kishin could ever touch the mighty Black Star!" My dad looks at me and I hesitantly reach out take his hand. When he transforms I almost don't catch him, he's a lot heavier than soul, and his balance is slightly off, but I can still feel a resonance between us. I suppose even if I do hate him he's still my father.

In the black steel reflection of his blade I see the concerned face of my papa. "Maka chan are you sure that your up to this? No body believes in you more than papa but its been a while since you've been out in the field."

I smirk down. "You think I would let Tsubaki get stronger without improving on my own? She only beat me last time because I didn't have a real weapon. With you she won't stand a chance. Let me show you." I let my soul wave pulse in time with my fathers and the same wings that I used to associate with Souls blade spring from my father. I turn to my allies "Stay close together, take out the little ones first"

I set off first flying straight into the enemy ranks at top speed. Right before I hit the swarm I turn off the wings and grab my father cutting through several small kishin. One dives at me and I jump off of its head to gain more altitude before spinning around decapitating three more I backflip midair and gracefully land on the back of the large kishin. In the sky I see black star hurtling through the kishin like a blue cannon ball his bare fists disintegrating them. Kid is to my right, the middle line in his hair connected as Liz and Patty's bullets pierce ten kishin at a time. What used to be an oppressive cloud of kishin is now reduced to one giant kishin and a sea of red souls. I hear my father through our resonance, "How did you kids get so good? Just months ago this would have been too much for you."

Kid and Blackstar land next to me. "I told you. There's is no way we're letting Tsubaki keep Soul." My Father looked into my eyes, then looked at my friends.

He smiled at me *sigh* "Kids aren't supposed to grow up so fast." All of a sudden the giant kishin we were standing on does a barrel roll knocking us all off. I reactivate my wings and catch Black star while Kid hovers on Beelzebub next to us. "so how do we go at that thing? Its massive!"

Black star yells out while holding on to my arm, "There's only one way a god like me can handle his problems! Head First! MAKA!" on his prompt I Start speeding towards the giant gaping mouth of the kishin before throwing Black star at it. "WAHOO!" The kishin opens its mouth hoping for a nice ninja snack instead black star flips at the last second landing right over its eye, or at least where it used to be.

The kishin howls in pain at the loss of its eye and tosses around throwing star off of its head. I Dive down and catch him before me makes a star shaped splat. Mean while Kid is zooming all around the bird peppering it with shots. I can barely hear him as he shouts down at me "I'm sending it your way Maka! Be ready!" I lower me and star to the ground and grip my scythe tightly. Kid backs away for a second before I feel his soul pulse and see Liz and Patty in execution mode. Twin lasers pierce the bird's right wing sending it hurtling towards the ground, towards me.

"Ready papa?" he nods. I reach out to my soul and let pulse my wavelength in time with my fathers. Its shaky at first but after a second his soul is reverberating in time with mine as our resonance rates rise. "Lets go Soul Resonance!" The kishin falls ever faster, three, two, one! I jump into the air swinging at its neck. "Witch Hunter!" When I land all that's left is one giant red soul.

After the fight we decide to take a short break before resuming our journey. The last stretch to Excalibur's cave is a dense jungle so we take some time to rest in the shade of the trees. I'm the first to speak up, "So we can all agree that what just happened wasn't normal right?" unanimous nods from the group, although I think Patty is just humming something in her head. "Any ideas on what is actually going on?"

I'm not surprised to hear Star get in the first word, I am surprised that what he says makes sense though, "Well, the only other time when kishin were this organized was when they were all following Asura's madness right? Maybe Asura's back?"

My father shakes his head, "No, if Asura was back we would know, Maka would probably sense it immediately."

"However", interjects Kid. "He may be onto something. What if the kishin have a new leader? The little we do know about them shows that all they really respect is strength. If there was somebody strong enough they could in theory lead them."

After that it's silence, we're all thinking the same thing. Liz is the one who says it; "Tsubaki was really strong when we last saw her huh?"

My mind is spinning, "but there's no way Tsubaki is leading the kishin right! I mean do kishin even take orders? They were just blindly following Asura! Were probably over thinking this!"

Papa stands up and puts a hand on my shoulder, and strangely I'm not completely repulsed by his presence. "I'm sure that's it Maka. Even if the kishin did have a new leader what are the chances it would be Tsubaki?"

Papa's probably right I'm sure I'm just over thinking it. Besides, even if it was true. That doesn't change anything. It doesn't matter who Tsubaki has on her side. I will save Soul. No matter what.

[Soul]

Tsubaki and I finally arrive around sundown. Our destination appears to be the mouth of a large cave in the middle of the forest. As we drew closer the feeling in my chest became strong enough that I began to feel drawn here even without using my new powers. "What do you think is in there?"

I look over at Tsubaki and see that creepy look in her eye. Whenever she looks at me she has it, it's almost like a hungry look and its really started creeping me out. Right now it looks as if she's about to start salivating staring at the mouth of the cave.

"Lets go." Tsubaki walks forward without even acknowledging me. I feel like this is the first time in hours that I haven't had her eyes constantly on me. The more time I spend with her the less sane she seems. She's been a little off but as we've grown closer to the cave she's grown more obsessive. Never the less I follow her inside, following not only her but the feeling in my chest as well.

When we finally get to the inner chambers of the cave, there is a large room with a single ray of sunlight penetrating the room. Within that light is a lone blade, one that I recognize from school. "Excalibur." The sword glows a bright yellow and then transforms. However instead of the odd comical creature id seen it turn into before, in front of me now was a boy looking around eight years old with blond hair wearing rags. "Excalibur?" I look over at Tsubaki and wish I didn't. She's looking at the boy the same way she's been leering at me. I understand why, when I look at Excalibur the feeling in my chest intensifies. He is definitely what were here for.

Tsubaki finally speaks up, "What are you?" Her voice is almost harsh as she stares the boy down.

He looks up at Tsubaki and I see his eyes, they glow bright gold, its like I can see his power leaking out through his eyes. "I am Excalibur," When he speaks its as if multiple people are speaking at once. "-acting under the philosopher stone protocol. Current prerogative is to continue existing. You do not have authorization to interact. Current threat level is four. If you do not leave immediately threat level will increase to three and threats will be eliminated."

Eliminated? That is Excalibur no doubt. I could never forget this power. I start tugging on Tsubaki's hand, "We need to go, we can't take him!" she doesn't even budge I look at her eyes and almost double take. Her entire eye I pitch black, I can't see any sort of pupil but I'm sure her pitch black eyes are locked with Excalibur's golden eyes. Fear strikes through me, madness. I need to run, I have to leave, I'm going to DIE!" I try to yank my hand away from Tsubaki's to make a mad dash for the mouth of the cave, for life. However I cant even move my hand from Tsubaki's. I pull and struggle to no avail, when I look down at my hand I see what looks to be dark tattoos snaking there way across my arm. I panic even more. The marks spread and thrive I lose complete control of every part of my skin they adorn. Within seconds they cover half my body, and not much longer I'm a prisoner trapped in the unmoving shell of my body. The only things I can move are my eyes. My point of view shifts dramatically and I realize that I'm in my weapon form. From my new position I can look at Tsubaki's face again.

Her mouth is twisted into a sinister smile. It scares me that it looks so much like Maka's grin when we fought Crona. The twisted sneer of madness. I try to struggle against my bonds to no avail. It's scary to realize that Tsubaki has complete power over me. "We can't take him you said." I snap out of my thought hearing her voice. I almost didn't recognize it as hers because of how deep it sounds. Her voice is animalistic, barbaric. "Because that's exactly what I'm going to do."

The boy stands up glowing again, when it stops instead of a boy Excalibur now looks around our age with blond hair down to his shoulders wearing a tunic. With the same voice as earlier, "Target adrenaline levels increased. Weapon drawn. Soul strength immense. Threat level upgraded to two. Body shift to accommodate complete. Threat execution, commence."

That's it for this chapter! It took so long because I started my first semester of college this past fall Go SFSU! I've been so strapped for time so I finally got it out. Also there was a real lack of reviews for the last chapter so it fell down a little lower on my priorities. Never the less here it is.

A couple things I want to talk about though:

First I've gotten some feed back on the way I write grammar and such, for any spelling mistakes, I'm sorry. I try to edit but editing is boring so I listen to music while proof reading (I do this in school too) so I obviously miss some things. Grammar wise though I'm pretty good at. Some people have pointed out how there are a lot of run-on / incomplete sentences and thoughts in Tsubaki and Maka's dialogue. That's on purpose. I don't like forget how to write when I get there, I do that because that's how I want their thoughts to be read. Especially with Tsubaki some parts are supposed to sound choppy and crazed, for example when she's thinking over the kishin army prospect. I originally wrote that in one or two sentences. I turned it into like five and added a bunch of pauses because that's how Tsubaki processed her thoughts there, choppy and in segments.

As for my other stories: im still writing them. Both of them. The great city im focusing more on though because of the things ive written that's probably my favorite, but as long as people continue to review shadow hunter it will rise in prority on my list.

Well that's all from me, thank you for reading this far, I really appreciate it (especially because of the rough start) please review tell me how you feel about the chapter or the story in general. Do you think it's improved? Gone down hill? Or am I just all over the place? I would really like to know.

If your interested in To aru check out my story in that category "The Great City" or if you like Naruto you might enjoy "Something Unexpected"

:3